Room for New

We have been some busy little bees. The children have needed children's rooms. We switched houses almost two years ago and we'd done nothing to their rooms. So, we decided to undertake the project. Each child got to choose their wall color and their theme. Mazie chose Pink Raspberry and mermaids.
I must say the color Mazie chose made me throw up a little in the beginning. It is very bright and very pink. But now that the room is done, I love it. I think the girl's got vision and style. It is such a happy color and the room suits her great. And our little girl loves mermaids more than anything, and has for a while. She'll often put her feet together and tuck them behind her saying, "Mama, this is how a mermaid sits."
She is now the proud owner of a desk that H's dad build. She loves keeping her stuff in it. We hope Mazie has many hours of delight and relaxation in her bedroom.
Lucia was wavering too much in her (lack of) decisions, so we are giving her a little more time to decide on her room details. She has committed to light pink walls and lots of polka dots. She just can't seem to decide among princesses, ballerinas, fairies, princess ballerinas, polka dot fairies, or pink and purple fairy ballerinas. We will let you know what she goes with.
Elliott picked a fantastic blue for his walls and he wanted super heroes. I love how his room turned out.
I tried to make a lot of the elements of their rooms. Pinterest was a tremendous help. How did we function before Pinterest?

The posters over the bed have batman sitting on the left building and spider man swinging toward the right building.

My dad gave us this chalkboard several years ago. It came out of his office. For the past two years it has been on the back porch/play room. They didn't use it much because there was always junk in front of it. All three love playing with it. They love to draw with chalk and they love to get a paint brush and water and paint (or clean) it.
We hope Elliott has many hours of enjoyment in his new bedroom. He is our super hero.

Happy Leap Day!

Rolling in the Ditch

Lucia singing one of everyone's favorite songs. Elliott taking a bath.

Sweet Nannie

A few weekends ago we had a birthday party for H's sweet grandmother, Nannie. She turned 93 at the end of January. We used a big empty house at the red light and invited anyone to come.
There was a wonderful turn out of love and appreciation for this remarkable lady. She is such an encouragement and blessing to all who know her.


Happy Birthday, Nannie. We love you good.
I love photos with multiple generations. The photo above shows four generations of the family.

To Grandma Livvy's House We Go

I promised my grandma we would go see her some time in January. (On our way to her house the week before Christmas, Lucia started throwing up and we had to turn back.) So, with the end of January approaching, I loaded us up and we headed her way. Like a terrible granddaughter, I took No pictures of my children with my Grandma. We must go back soon so I can.
The three and I did go into the big city for a day and had a great time. My aunt went with us to the children's museum, Centennial park, and to get a frosted orange. We had a fantastic time.
H and I took the babes to the children's museum when they were much younger--probably at least two years ago. It was fun to take them back and notice some of the differences in their interests and skills. This trip they were not into the food area or the dress-up area like they were before.
There were some new stations that we enjoyed--like moon sand* and milking a life-size cow.



For the first hour we were there, a lot of school children were there. It was loud and busy. I really noticed a difference in my three once the commotion filed out. Elliott especially was able to concentrate on a task much better. He spent about 90 seconds at the moon sand when the museum was rocking. Once it cleared out, he sat there for 30 minutes working on building the tallest tower he could.



The painting area was new too. The Girls especially enjoyed it.

Elliott loved the crane and balls and gutters and pulleys. He spent most of his time there with my aunt.
Lucia enjoyed working in her garden.
Mazie stopped to enjoy some gears. Maybe she has a little Grandpa in her?

*We have made moon sand since we've gotten home. I had seen a recipe on the internet and tried a batch one day when we had a little friend coming over. All moon sand is is 8 cups flour to 1 cup baby oil. It feels great. We played with it outside, so I am not sure how the clean-up is on it. It doesn't stick to your hands though, or make them oily.

What is Love?

Yesterday I asked the children what Love means. When they said, "It means 'I love you,'" I asked in a different way. "When I say 'I love you' what does that mean?" Here are their answers.

Lucia: It means 'I really love you, Lucia. You are so beautiful.'

Elliott: Much

Mazie: Heart

We hope your Valentine's Day was filled with much beautiful heart.

Mr. Foxy

We have fox squirrels where we live. We love watching them run and play and jump from tree to tree. We had a good rain yesterday and this little guy came out to play after the clouds passed.
A fox squirrel has a fluffy reddish tail and face markings that look like a bandit mask.
We call every fox squirrel we see "Mr. Foxy" and we always stop to watch them scamper and climb.

One Expensive Cup of Coffee

I swannee on my soul I can't catch a break with this blog. I was getting back into my groove with it all when last Sunday morning I built a huge bump in my road, a mound of great proportion. Let me paint the picture for you:

I have a chair and ottoman with a small bookshelf on one side and a table on the other side. I sit here in the mornings when I get up. I drink my coffee, read, write, maybe sew a bit. My table usually houses half a dozen books, my sewing box, pens, a picture frame. I have never set my coffee cup on my knee before. I usually put it on the table, occasionally I'll put it on the arm of the chair. For some reason, last Sunday morning I set the coffee on my right knee, bent and standing up beside my computer which was resting on my left thigh. Of course in no time at all the coffee cup started to fall.

The way I grabbed for my coffee cup was the exact way I should have grabbed it if I wanted to spill the entire contents into the center of my laptop's keyboard. The computer immediately made two electrical-type noises and then shut itself down. I don't remember my response exactly, but I feel I immediately made two cussing-type noises and then freaked out.

I love my lap top. I have had it for five years this month. The month we got pregnant with LEM. It has housed my life for the last five years, the most full five years of my life. It has marker on it. The E key is broken, completely gone. I can still see breast milk on it in places. I have loved and abused, tortured and adored this thing.

We have a good friend who is a computer genius. He took pity on me and came to carry the laptop away. He felt sure he could get the hard drive recovered. He said he'd clean up the insides (he used more technical terms than that) and then after 72 hours he'd turn it on and see what happened. But, he laughed the few times I asked him if he thought it would work again. No.

Wednesday evening he brought my beloved back to me--in working order. I am having some significant internet issues, but everything else is there. And, I am hoping the internet can be worked out.

So, here I am with H's laptop, using clip art for images. It doesn't take much to set me back. I'll either get my laptop in working order or load pictures onto this laptop. Until then, I'll just do what I can, which is all I can do.

The moral of the story is ... obvious.

Holiday Joy

The children had fun making rugalach for Santa. Tia Karen had lots of fun ingredients for them to put inside.
They also loved playing dreidel with their Tia and Cousin Avery. Everyone ended up winning lots of chocolate coins.
Santa did indeed find us at Grandpa and NanaLin's.


Documenting the Two Photographers, or Dueling Cameras.
Grandpa with the grandkids.


The gift of the day--the AlumaWallet.
Thank goodness for Grandpas because this Mama does not enjoy opening and unpacking and assembling toys.
Look at our handsome little cousin. He's ready to drive his new car.
S&S&K were super sweet to all the four-year-olds. Below they are playing Magic Keys on the iPad.
Thank you to Grandpa and NanaLin for making Christmas so special this year. We loved our time with y'all.